You played youth baseball or softball as a kid, right? The best player was almost always the shortstop. Oh, they’d also pitch, bat third or fourth and look like they were 2-3 years older than everyone else on the roster. But the shortstop was the star, the starting point.
Welcome to fantasy baseball, 2025. The shortstops are the stars again.
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Not the only stars, mind you — guys like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge and Paul Skenes have a say about that. But three of the top six players in Yahoo ADP are shortstops (make it 4-of-8 if you want to count Mookie Betts), and 11 of the top 90 will cover this position. And you shouldn’t have any problems finding fun shortstops to select outside pick 100, or even pick 200.
This is the fun zone. So, let’s have some fun.
The Big Tickets
Bobby Witt Jr., Royals (Yahoo ADP: 2.2)
He’s in play as a possible No. 1 overall pick. Young star development isn’t always linear but we sleep better when it is — Witt’s grown in pretty much every skill area through his three seasons. This is probably the best lineup he’s had around him. Witt wants to play in every game. Age-25 season coming up. I won’t end March without a share of him, somewhere, even if I’m overpaying. This game is supposed to be fun, right? Does anyone remember laughter?
Elly De La Cruz, Reds (Yahoo ADP: 5.1)
He still doesn’t completely know what he’s doing and yet, look at last year: .259-105-25-76-67. Elly wants to run as much as possible. Cincinnati’s park is an offensive giveaway. He outkicked his expected hard-hit metrics last year but at least there was mild improvement in the walks and strikeouts. If he’s around last year’s stat haul, you make a par. But we know uber-talented 23-year-olds can get better, too.
Gunnar Henderson, Orioles (Yahoo ADP: 6.5)
Already a perfect player. Okay, he’s not as fast as Witt and Elly, because no one is, but he still cobbled together 21 steals. I don’t understand Baltimore’s passive offseason, but the lineup was already great. The Orioles are mercifully re-adjusting the left-field dimensions, which always felt like a misguided overcorrection. Henderson is only slightly worse against left-handed pitching; if he continues to improve there, he could be the first overall pick in 2026.
Mookie Betts, Dodgers (Yahoo ADP: 7.5)
This will be the first time in forever I don’t draft Betts proactively, and I’m melancholy to type that. It’s an age-32 season. He picks his spots on the bases. All the slash numbers dropped last year, and the Dodgers are basically doing a dress rehearsal for six months before the real games start. Betts is probably incapable of having a bad season, but as he turns to the back nine, I can’t imagine the upside I want from a player at his draft-price point.
Francisco Lindor, Mets (Yahoo ADP: 12.3)
They say it’s impossible to be underrated in New York but maybe Lindor qualifies. He just had his best OPS+ season and would have won MVP had Shohei Ohtani not broken baseball in Los Angeles. The New York lineup is probably the deepest in the majors, 1-to-9. Don’t you love it when a high floor is tied to plausible upside? And never lose sight of this simple fantasy truth: we want star players, at peak ages, tied to the best offenses. It’s as simple as that.
Proactive Target
Ezequiel Tovar, Rockies (Yahoo ADP: 139)
His plate-discipline metrics are painful to look at, but he hasn’t exactly been exploited for the free-swinging — he’s batted .253 and .269 the last two years. Coors Field isn’t the cheat code it used to be (part logistics and part lousy roster construction), but Tovar will slot first or second, so volume will be his friend. I’m rooting for a mild uptick in stolen bases, so we can dream of an Ezequiel 25/17 projection. He’s a better fantasy candidate than real-life hitter, but so what? Being a good roto manager means constantly being mindful of that gap.
Value/Sleeper Targets
Masyn Winn, Cardinals (Yahoo ADP: 195)
Winn grabbed the leadoff spot in early June and never gave it back, although his slash line was a little worse in the second half. He showed more pop than I initially expected from his rookie season, and he’s talking about stealing more bases this year. Okay, a lot of players will say that in the next two months. But given how quickly Wynn made the majors and how he seems to excel at most things (he was also a Gold Glove finalist last year), I’m happy to bet on him.
Dansby Swanson, Cubs (Yahoo ADP: 202)
It’s an age-31 season for Swanson, so we have to let go of career-year dreams. But his last four years average out to .254-85-23-83-14. You see something better at pick 200? I’ve tried to build younger teams the longer I play fantasy sports, but I still have an eye out for the occasional Ibañez All-Star, those boring-value vets. Swanson qualifies.
Possible Fades
CJ Abrams, Nationals (Yahoo ADP: 55.1)
The stolen-bases efficiency dropped and the Statcast sliders were a big dish of meh. The late-season demotion could be a wake-up call. Until he stops chasing behind in the count, the batting average is always going to tax you. He’s probably 1-3 rounds too expensive.
Willy Adames, Giants (Yahoo ADP: 72.7)
He’s been on the underrated page for years, but that ADP is no giveaway. The park change might not look like much, but look at the home-run column. And of course, we always worry about a player on the first year on a big contract when he’s changed teams. It’s nothing personal, Willy, it’s just business. We’ll revisit in 2026.
Anthony Volpe, Yankees (Yahoo ADP: 150)
Volpe’s batting-slot trajectory was the opposite of Wynn’s — Volpe percolated to the leadoff spot in April but gave it up midseason, ending the year in the bottom third. Every spring you need to be hyper-focused on the handful of players who have polarizing batting-slot positions waiting to be decided. It’s an age-24 season for Volpe, his story is mostly unwritten. He had fewer walks last year but he did improve his contact rate. The slugging dipped a bit. We know 25-30 steals are projectable.
I’m not dismissing Volpe out of hand as a draft candidate, but he doesn’t look obviously better than a handful of players who are 2-4 rounds cheaper.
Top-15 SS-eligible draft rankings
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1. Bobby Witt Jr.
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2. Elly De La Cruz
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3. Gunnar Henderson
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4. Mookie Betts
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5. Francisco Lindor
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6. Trea Turner
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7. Corey Seager
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8. Oneil Cruz (I hope the position switch doesn’t mess with his head too much)
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9. CJ Abrams
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10. Willy Adames
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11. Bo Bichette (I have no idea here; I don’t think anyone does)
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12. Matt McLain
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13. Ezequiel Tovar
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14. Xavier Edwards (wish he had more of a track record, but that late run was fantastic)
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15. Xander Bogarts (most trends pointing in the wrong direction)
*Zach Neto only misses this list because of his off-season shoulder surgery; monitor him closely.
